Joy Crisp '79 Explains Mars Rover's New Findings

Nasa is finally thinking about getting its Curiosity rover on the road and heading towards the big mountain at its exploration site in Mars' Gale Crater.

The robot has spent the past six months in a small depression, drilling its rocks and analysing their composition.

But even as the labs do their analysis, Curiosity has started moving towards a rock feature it saw briefly on the way into Yellowknife Bay.

Known as Point Lake, this outcrop has an unusual holey appearance - like Swiss cheese. Scientists are unsure as to whether it is volcanic or sedimentary in character.

"One idea is that it could be a lava flow and those are gas vesicles, and you often see in volcanic rocks on Earth that those kinds of holes are sometimes filled in by secondary minerals. That's one possibility," said Dr Joy Crisp, the deputy project scientist for Curiosity.